An alliance of nearly a hundred of the nation's wealthiest donors is roiling Democratic political circles, directing more than $50 million in the past nine months to liberal think tanks and advocacy groups in what organizers say is the first installment of a long-term campaign to compete more aggressively against conservatives.

A year after its founding, Democracy Alliance has followed up on its pledge to become a major power in the liberal movement. It has lavished millions on groups that have been willing to submit to its extensive screening process and its demands for secrecy.

These include the Center for American Progress, a think tank with an unabashed partisan edge, as well as Media Matters for America, which tracks what it sees as conservative bias in the news media. Several alliance donors are negotiating a major investment in Air America, a liberal talk-radio network.

Removing any remaining doubt that Air America Radio is nothing more than an election- year "progressive" propaganda vehicle, the story presents a "who's who" list of fat cat liberal contributors.

Interestingly, this is being portrayed by both the WaPo and lefty sites as a "lib vs. lib" battle between wealthy contributors and grassroots organizers for the so-called "progressive" movement. To a point, the Radio Equalizer might be inclined to believe it, depending on whether or not there are vocal objections from the latter group.

how dare people put their money in a company that they believe in?!?!?

thank God that you have reported this, Brian. i now know that it is wrong to invest in something that you believe in. and thank God that the republicans who are actually in office have never taken any money from any sort of corporation or lobby group. that would just be hypocritical.

I have invested about $150 per year in subscription and the same in hardware to get XM Radio so I can listen to AAR. I also invested $50 to get the Marc Maron Show podcasts directly from AAR.

Are you so deluded as to seriously think that if AAR went away that I would not find something else to invest my political entertainment dollars in? That goes for a lot of fans of political analysis and political satire I'd imagine. Face it, we are way past the days of having to listen to Jim Hightower.

Capitalism will prove out that should AAR ebb and flow, someone else will take its spot.

"but no; it became clear quite quickly that this wasn't a network but a club, with hosts selected on the basis of name recognition (kennedy, franken, garafalo, chuck d) or ostensible niche appeal rather than actual skill."

I heard that interchange with Rush talking to some woman speed-talking. The impression I got was that there was a transcriber who (always?) types out what callers are saying to Rush, and that he/she just couldn't keep up with the motor-mouth and he had to keep telling her to slow down, then eventually stop.

I doubt it. Probably actual liberals because DK most likely weeds out anyone not towing the lefty line. Even the leftys admit it: AAR just isn'tcutting it. The DUmmies have had similar threads, and they also weedout non-libs.

AAR would not be able to convince anyone–especially FEC regulators tasked to enforce McCain-Feingold restrictions–it is a commercial, for-profit broadcast endeavor, covered under the legislation's media exemptions, if its existence is predicated on financing from an admitted politically partisan PAC like Democracy Alliance. Having deep-pocketed liberals investing as private citizens is one thing; Democracy Alliance is an entirely different situation. The FEC could force AAR to open their books to prove they are not merely a subsidiary of the PAC.

As I've said before, AAR is God's gift to conservatives - where else can you hear the bankrupt ideology of the left "unfiltered"? i.e. if you really want to know what the left is all about a couple of hours of AAR is all you need. In fact, I can think of no better advertisement for the conservative cause than AAR - even my few progressive friends can't listen, and consider it to be an utter embarrassment.

But it's better than that, AAR can't go off the air - no matter how bad it is, the left would never allow it to fold, because that would be an admission of that the public doesn't want progessive talk radio. Heck, the left won't even own up to the blatently apparent fact that the ratings are dismal.